the refrigerator, it's a personal decision, but sometimes i'll store stuff in plastic myself, but i kind of switched over to almost only glass just because it's easier to have one set of stuff ultimately. >> [inaudible]. >> obviously i'm not leaving it in there for months but i might leave a case in there, i might have that for a couple of weeks. >> studies they've done have usually been 72 to 108 hours, so relatively short-term, but also somewhat higher heat exposure than what we probably get most of the time in san francisco, so conditions are really variable and then it's usually controlled rather than kind of normal. yeah? >> so, in general where possible, staying away from plastic water bottles is not only making your life a little

bit healthier, it's decreasing our dependence on plastic which is more important as a broader environmental issue, but even water bottles, even if you leave them in a cold environment, you don't know where they've come from or they've been in ship holds which is really hot, just as a number one rule, if you smell something plastic don't drink out of it. >> that's good advice. >> i have two questions, they're a little bit unrelated but the first one goes on the scheme of plastic, so plastic wrap, plastic bags, you know, it's great to say we should all use glass but we know what's used out there is plastic, and it's reusable, you can come up with all these ways to avoid it but there's plastic everywhere and it's accessible and cheap, so plastic wrap gets used a lot, there aren't that many alternatives that can do what plastic wrap does, i don't use a lot of it and it's harder to

store things long-term and same question applies for the freezer, it's easier to put things in a freezer bag. >> so, a little tip for that is i do admit to using plastic bags, i reuse them and if something is not -- i don't use them for liquids and if something isn't somehow already kind of like a solid or whatever, parchment paper around that and then use the plastic just as the thing that keeps it from leak-proof or if i'm taking soup to work, i have my soup in a glass jar but i will throw it in plastic because i don't want it all over my backpack and there's also more stainless steel options which are a little more expensive but that's a one-time

investment, just don't lose it, so a box of plastic bags, it lasts me like three year, parchment paper, it's the layer that touches your food and then aluminum foil isn't really bad, but parchment paper is a good thing. >> plastics in kids toys and kids products, they're not really labeled, i don't find the same symbol on them and i do a lot of the reuse and recycle, but mostly reusing things so we have hand-me-downs and all kinds of toys that have been through many generations and i sometimes think about it, i can only worry so much about what my son puts in his mouth, but when you talk about chemicals, where do you start,

besides i know wooden toys are best and that was the plan originally, only wood in our house and glass and ceramics, that's all lovely in theory, it's not what happens unless you're a waldorf parent and you're strict and it's really your principle, so good will has a lot of plastic, so you know, anymore words on that, i realize it's a matter of what you can do, but -- >> i have not encountered some of those challenges because i'm not a parent but i have been around a lot of kids, important note is that in 2008, a law was passed that mra*s sites could not longer be used in kids toys , for right now, if you're buying new toys off the shelf, they're not going to have that

particular compound, plus skish shi ones, they're not going to have that, i know you have a small child, is when they're at that mouthing stage of putting everything in their mouth, that maybe be the time to be most concerned about the specifics when they get to the older stage where, you know, there's some pretty nifty plastic toys out there, let's get real, and i like that i had legos as a kid and those were plastic, you know, maybe that's when you loosen it up a little bit and make, you know, judicious decisions, but when they're putting everything in their mouths, you want to be the most careful about what that is, parents may have other added tips. >> [inaudible] because most of the toys for kids, we don't really check sometimes where they're made.

>> it's for toys sold in the united states, so regardless of where the manufacturer is, if they're sold in the u.s., they have to comply with those standards, other countries could well have different laws on their shelves and my guess would be vary from laws that would be more health protective to less fighters to join us. >> i have two questions, i'll keep them brief. we can't control where our fire houses are and our fire house is a block off the freeway, we do replace our h fact filters every five mother and is they're jet black when we replace them every three months, it is a big concern, how do we reduce our exposure when we're a block right off the freeway, we're bumper to bump traffic, and there are some fire houses that are

literally underneath the freeway so how do we reduce that exposure, air filters, if so, what kind of air filters? >> you're getting beyond our technical knowledge of our filtration, but you know, it might be somebody to consult with somebody with expertise in air filtration for indoor air of course, maybe replacing those filters more often, you know, some very basic things and again, i'm not an engineer, but wiping down surfaces with moistures rather than a rag captures that better, otherwise you're containing it better, thinking about some of the basic things you do in the home, i would consult someone

who has experience in air filters. >> [inaudible]. >> [inaudible] and my husband tells me they mop the apparatus floors every day because it's a diesel dust, i'm not sure if it's a common practice in fire houses, i was told someone in the fire department had developed cancer and they thought it was partly due to the diesel dust so they mop down every day, i know they probably sweep it but i don't know if mopping down is what 9 does, i don't know if this is company policy because i haven't been there. it is? okay. >> i have a question. my question is unrelated, talking about -- going back to the radiation and how bad it is for your body, so why do they recommend it as a treatment if

someone has had cancer of various sorts? >> kind of because it can be toxic to cells and -- so, if you target it, right, and then you're directing it to those very cancer cells that are growing very rapidly and are in a very focal area, then you are, you know, -- and it's at a higher dose than you're exposed to when you're screening, you're killing those cells and you're stopping their growth, so they're leveraging that particular feature of the radiation just as they do with chemotherapy which is drugs that we won't have to take unless we're needing to kill those cancer cells. >> [inaudible] radiation? >> it is very focused >> even though the [inaudible] i was talking about, if it's

focused, why does everybody leave the room? >> they're spending their 8 hour work day, and even if it's focused and there's a little bit of spread, radiation, as i understand, i'm not a physicist either, does reduce in its power the further away you get from it, right, that there's still, you know, if you're spending 8, 9 hours a day, you don't want that little bit added, they're getting better and better at in medical radiation when they're using it as a treatment, directing that ray to a more specific and localized area, but, you know, we do see in kids who are treated with radiation early -- for earlier childhood cancers that they can develop later life cancers as a result, now what's your trade-off there, the 20, 30 years of life they

may have and maybe it's a treatable cancer they might get later, but if you're an adult and getting na, you're weighing the costs and benefits. >> i just wanted to say one thing about the -- a couple of things about the diesel fuel, christine brings a great thing about where your fire house is located but what are our practices in the fire house, and are your extractors plugged in when the rigs are on or they're plugged in and blowing into the apparatus floor and with some of our standing orders with the ambulances, i know for sure they're supposed to stay on all the time at a scene, you're at a house in an hour and your rig is supposed to be on outside, that's addressing some of those policies within our department, it's like, well, we're told you have to leave the rig running to keep the power up or

something, well, come on now, you know, can't that not be changed a little bit, so i think that that is, you know, it's the diesel fuel we know is something cancer-causing, the other thing that came up with me is not a question but a comment with fire houses that i know and just starting to look and there's been some talk in our department, why do we have cell towers on our fire houses and there are some fire houses that have them and they're in places where it's exposing right where we sleep, why do -- why do we have that and is it a cost benefit thing, and just to start to ask some of those questions of our administration really, so that was it. >> so, i think that we are out of time, but this was wonderful, thank you for the rich questions and your attention and for bringing so many of you in here. >> i would like to thank bonnie and the breast cancer fund for

coming and all of the local co-op that uses local ingredients, we practice what we preach.